A national survey on attitudes to public-private partnerships

For the past four years, The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) has conducted an annual survey to measure and track what Canadians think about public-private partnerships (PPPs) – specifically, whether they think that governments should be actively seeking partnerships with the private sector to build public assets and provide public services.

Each year, CCPPP commissions the national research company Environics Research Group Limited to ask 2,000 adult Canadians a series of questions probing their attitudes to the infrastructure deficit, the overall concept of public-private partnerships and specific sectors where the private sector could partner with governments to build infrastructure and/or deliver services.

While there have been several significant (and many minor) variations in responses over the years, the results have been remarkably consistent in a number of important respects. Firstly, the initial CCPPP survey in 2004 found that an overwhelming majority of Canadians (86%) believed that their federal, provincial and municipal governments were not keeping pace with demand for new or improved public infrastructure and services. Four years later, that figure has edged up to 88%, actually an identical result within the survey’s margin of error.

On the survey’s other general question – whether it is time to involve the private sector in addressing this infrastructure and service deficit – this year’s results show that a solid plurality of Canadians (64%) still support partnerships between private sector companies and governments. That figure leveled off in 2007 after increasing steadily during the previous three years.

These results are based on nationwide surveys of 2,000-plus adult Canadians conducted in September and October, 2004- 2007. The results are estimated to be accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20. The margin of error is greater for results pertaining to regional or socio-demographic subgroups of the total sample.

The Poll Results

• Measuring Public Reaction to PPP in Canada - A Four Year Report
  Note: This document is not printable. For hard copies, please fill out a Publication Order Form or contact us.